Severe flooding in India and
Nepal over the past fortnight has affected millions of people and
left hundreds of thousands homeless, with little in the way of assistance
from government authorities.

The worst
hit area is the eastern Indian state of Bihar where hundreds of villages
were inundated when a two-kilometre breach occurred in a badly-maintained
embankment on the Kosi River, adjoining the India-Nepal border, on
August 19. The Kosi, which is a major tributary of the Ganges River,
carved out a new course and deluged huge areas of land.

Mahesh
Puri, a UNICEF emergency specialist, told the Washington Post: “The
river changed its course and inundated areas where people have not
seen floods in 50 years. They were completely unprepared. What is
worse is that many of these people will never be able to go back to
their homes because the river has changed course. Now there are streams
where there were none before.”

Indian
officials told the media that work to fix the dam and try to divert
the river back to its normal course could not begin until the end
of the rainy season in October and might take until early next year.

UN agencies
estimated that three million people have been affected by the disaster.
Half a million have fled to dry ground, while hundreds of thousands
are still awaiting rescue. In neighbouring Nepal, at least 1,000 homes
have been destroyed and around 60,000 people displaced.

Bihar is
one of India’s poorest and most populous states. Some 37 million
of its population of 90 million live below the poverty line. Annual
per capita income is just $US160. An estimated 1,000 villages in 16
districts in Bihar have been submerged by the floodwaters. Madhepura,
Saharsa, Supaul, Araria and Katihar, which border eastern Nepal, are
the most badly affected districts.

The Washington
Post reported the death toll at 117 on Wednesday, but officials fear
that the number of dead will rise sharply as the water recedes. Last
Friday, a boat involved in rescue operations capsized drowning 20
persons. On Tuesday, 15 people were drowned in similar incidents—10
in one boat and five in another.

Aid agencies
have accused the government of playing down the death toll. “By
not counting those gone missing, the government estimates not only
result in inadequate compensation and rehabilitation processes, but
also underplay the need for rescue and relief,” Action Aid adviser
Dr. P.V. Unnikrishnan said.

Many refugees
fled with only the clothes they were wearing. At least half a million
are still stranded two weeks after the disaster began. People are
crowded on rooftops and trees or on small strips of high ground. The
media has reported survivors desperately appealing to overcrowded
military rescue boats and helicopters for help.

Many of
the survivors are crowded into makeshift camps set up by the government
and aid agencies, or living in temples. They lack food and clean drinking
water, as well as basic sanitation and health care. Aid agencies have
warned of the outbreak of waterborne diseases.

The UN
has warned that “the heat, combined with limited supplies of
safe drinking water and poor hygiene conditions, poses a great risk
of water- and vector-borne diseases.” In one camp at a school
in Saharsa district, a nurse reported: “We have had 35 cases
of diarrhoea and fever today out of 800 people in the camp.”

After flying
over the affected area, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared
the disaster to be a “national calamity”. But the government
has announced a limited aid package of $US230 million and released
125,000 tonnes of grain for relief. So far food has reached only a
small number of those affected.

In response
to criticisms of its limited rescue operation, the government increased
the number of troops involved to 3,000 and dispatched several navy
and air force teams to the flooded areas.

Angry survivors
accused the government of leaving people stranded in remote villages.
Bhushan told the Independent: “They should send more boats.
How long can we survive without food and water? We are worried about
our children and womenfolk—they should think about us.”

One villager,
Bijender, told reporters: “We’ve lost our homes, we’ve
lost our clothes, we’ve lost everything.” Another said:
“We are taking our children and leaving and we don’t even
know where we are going.” Angry villagers have hijacked rescue
vessels and looted food, water and other essentials.

Official neglect

After floods
in 1954, India and Nepal agreed on plans to dam the Kosi River, which
were completed in 1959. India undertook to maintain the dams and embankments,
while both countries agreed to continually remove silt, which builds
up constantly.

N.K. Singh,
chairman of the Bihar planning commission, acknowledged in an article
in the Times of India on September 1 that the temporary embankments
were meant to last for 25 years. Nearly 50 years after construction
was completed, successive Indian governments have taken no further
action to build permanent embankments or implement other flood prevention
measures.

Nepali
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav was quick to point the finger at India,
declaring: “There have been some shortcomings in the maintenance
of the embankment”. He said India was bound to provide compensation,
rescue support and rehabilitation services to affected Nepalese.

Indian
officials attempted to evade any responsibility by claiming the floods
were unprecedented. “This has never happened before. How can
you suggest that we could plan for this? Tell me which state can cope
with hundreds of thousands of people losing everything,” Prataya
Amrit, a disaster management official in Bihar, told reporters.

Writing
to the rediff.com website, Himanshu Thakkur, coordinator for the South
Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, accused the government of
ignoring the warning signs. “The pressure on the breached site
of the embankment was apparent from August 5 onwards. Even at this
stage, if the government of India had used all its powers to ensure
proper maintenance, the disaster could have been averted.”

It seems
that there were even earlier warning signals. According to the UN-funded
ReliefWeb, early rains in the Ganges’ catchment areas in May
caused concern among aid agencies.

Adding
to the scale of the disaster is the vast expansion of the population
living in flood-prone areas of Bihar over the past half century. Three
years ago, Eklavya Prasad pointed out in a book, Civil Society, that
the vulnerable area of Bihar had nearly trebled from 2.5 million hectares
in 1952, when there was 160 kilometres of embankment, to 6.9 million
hectares in 2002, with 3,3430 kilometres of embankment. An estimated
three-quarters of the population of northern Bihar are now at risk
from floods every year during the monsoon.

Other areas
of the Indian subcontinent have been hit by serious flooding. On Tuesday,
it was reported one million people have been displaced by floods in
the northeastern Indian state of Assam that have affected 16 of 27
districts. The death toll on Tuesday stood at 15. Officials estimated
that 1,346 villages were inundated after the Brahmaputhra River breached
its banks in 20 places.

In neighbouring
Bangladesh, about 125,0000 people have been marooned as floods submerged
20 of the country’s northern and central districts. Last year,
flooding killed about 1,000 people in these areas.

Every year
during the monsoon season, millions of people throughout South Asia
suffer flooding. Even before the catastrophe in Bihar, nearly 1,000
people in India had been killed. Last year the number of flood victims
was 800.

Attempts
are regularly made by politicians and the media to dismiss such tragedies
as unavoidable natural disasters. While natural forces are certainly
involved, the real responsibility rests with governments and the profit
system for failing to take even basic measures to prevent or minimise
flooding and provide adequate assistance for the victims.

The yearly
flood toll is an indictment not only of governments in South Asia,
but of the major powers as well. In response to the latest catastrophe
in Bihar, the EU and the US have offered a pittance in aid to India—just
$US100,000 and $3 million, respectively. In a social order that puts
profit ahead of social need, the last thing that any of these governments
are concerned about is funding a scientific plan to put an end to
the death and misery caused by flooding and other disasters.

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